Napoleon-watch: Blackstone's IPO nearly broken

As I posted earlier this month, Blackstone Group's CEO Stephen Schwarzman gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal with a compelling theme -- Schwarzman is the Napoleon of private equity. Napoleon-watch tracks his moves on the business battleground.

The Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) has lost 7.47% of the value it created on its first day of trading. And it now trades a mere $1.44 above where it initially started trading last Friday morning.

There has been huge hype surrounding this IPO and I have gotten some grief for my role in that. DealBook, FP Trading Desk, and Felix Salmon were among the blogs that pointed out how far Blackstone's IPO closed below the $90 high I blogged about last week.

But for those who read my posts, I made it clear that I did not think Blackstone was a good investment for individual investors and that the master limited partnership units were poised to pop because the IPO was reportedly seven times oversubscribed. And after last Friday's disappointing performance it dawned on me that those oversubscription stories may have been fiction planted by underwriters to stimulate demand for Blackstone's securities.

But this has not stopped many media outlets from trumping the success of the Blackstone offering. For example Barron's cover story was A Score for Blackstone's Management. I usually respect Barron's coverage but this was a puff piece that glossed over the issues that concern me about investing in the company.

And with its price tumbling close to its initial offering price, it could quickly become a busted IPO.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned in this post.